A big weekend in
BBC Radio 1 is hosting its annual music festival online.
Every year since 2003, BBC Radio 1 has held a music festival called Big Weekend at different locations across the UK. This year’s festival was meant to take place at Camperdown Park in Dundee, Scotland, and about 70,000 people were planning to go. In March, however, BBC Radio 1 announced that Big Weekend could no longer take place because of the coronavirus outbreak. Instead, BBC Radio 1 is holding the festival online for the first time ever.
Until 24 May, people can enjoy the Big Weekend from home by listening to BBC Radio 1 or watching on BBC iPlayer. Although the stars will be performing from their own homes, they will be spread across five virtual “stages” to replicate the festival experience. For example, the BBC Music Introducing Stage will showcase the biggest up-and-coming talents, and the Headliner Stage will show classic performances from previous years.
This year’s line-up includes Anne-Marie, Ellie Goulding, the Jonas Brothers, Niall Horan, Rita Ora and Sam Smith. Anne-Marie suggests that everyone watching at home should pretend they’re at a festival by camping in their living room for the weekend. “I’m going to do it right here in my living room,” she says.
The first ever Big Weekend was hosted in Manchester, England, in 2003 but only lasted one day because the weather was so bad. The first completed weekend was in Cardiff in 2004. The radio presenter Greg James says that Big Weekend is his favourite event of the year and he’s very happy it’s still going ahead. However, as it’s never been done online before, he says, “It could all go wrong, and that’s sort of a great thing. Whatever happens, happens.”
You can listen to performances from this year’s Big Weekend on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Sounds, or watch them on BBC iPlayer.